Ever since Pride and Prejudice rocked the English world with its drama and scandal, sappy romance stories have dominated a huge share of the market. Meanwhile, masterpieces like Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men (damn, I love that book) get muted responses. No one’s ever heard of the book or the author. But, Nicholas Sparks and Danielle Steel – those are household names. This isn’t some criticism of popular romance authors. It might be if you mention 50 Shades of Grey. But look at what makes books popular: emotion.

Adultery. Death. Love. Love then adultery then death. Drama=emotion. It could mean fear or anger or joy. Just gives us the feels and we’ll give you the money. In the case of 50 Shades, that meant fear, anger, and a good deal of disgust. All of that resulted in over 100 million copies sold. Sorry, I couldn’t resist a little jab.

The truth is you’re all idiots. Yes. You’re an idiot. And you’re an idiot. Hey, I’m an idiot too. We’re all idiots. We don’t want to think. Even if a book gives us the meaning of life, we’d rather read about a juicy scandal. Emotion gets the juices flowing! Thought makes our brains hurt.